The Directory is the heart and soul of PCBFiler. Within the editor, you can easily maintain your file directories by moving, copying, or deleting files located in a particular directory. Once you understand how the directory editor works, you will be able to quickly and easily place files where you want them.

Understanding the Directory Editor screen will help you be more productive while using it. The following screen shows points of interest. Following the screen, an explanation will be given which describe what each arrow points to.

The status indicators are always displayed but are different for novice and expert users. These status indicators are typically shown in bright red on the left side of the screen. The following explains each status indicator and what it looks like in both novice and expert modes.

Represents the current line number that is highlighted in the directory file. These line numbers include all description lines, text lines, blank lines, etc.

The total number of lines that are in the file directory currently loaded into the editor.

Every file must have a description if you want the file to be listed in your file directories. The first line of the description is known as the primary description line because it is required.

A secondary description line is any line in a multi-line description other than the first line. This line always has a vertical bar ( | ) to help separate it from a primary description line. When the file is listed in the file directory, the vertical bar will not be shown to the user.

Any line in a file directory which does not describe a file, is considered a text line. You have 79 characters on a text line which you can enter text. The previous example points to a text line that says %H:\PCB\DIR\HPCBD2. The % in the first column is a special feature of PCBoard and PCBFiler. In this case, PCBFiler will display the H:\PCB\DIR\HPCBD2.

The conference number is only displayed when you are using expert mode in the editor. If you change the value in this field, the file will be automatically marked for moving to the new conference you specify.

Like the conference number, the directory number is only displayed while you are using expert mode in the editor. If you change the value in this field, the file will be moved to the new directory you specify. If you want to move the file to the off-line directory, you can enter an X for the directory number.

There are some keystrokes you will want to remember to help you navigate while you are in the Directory Editor. These keys will easily let you go to the beginning or end of a directory file. In addition, you can use these keystrokes to step through fields in the editor.

You can tell what the current field is, because it will be highlighted.
For example, if the date field is the current field, you can enter any valid date into the field and it will be saved. Likewise, you can move over to the description area, and enter or change text in that field.

Within PCBFiler there are several commands you can execute which will allow you to perform actions on various files, check free space, shell to DOS, etc. The following is a list of commands available while you are in the Directory Editor of PCBFiler:

An integral part of the file system is the ability to move and delete files. Most SysOps will have several file directories defined. Since all uploads go into one directory, you need a way to move files out of the upload directory into a new directory. Likewise, you may need to delete a file because you do not want to put it online for download and you do not want it wasting space.

There are two different ways to move files within the Directory Editor.
Each method has advantages and disadvantages. The following discusses the two methods:

Simply fill in this information, and press ESC to mark the file for moving. You will see either a MOV or an M next to the filename showing you that the filename is marked to be moved.

If you press ALT-M while you have files that are marked as selected (SEL or S) all files that were selected will be moved to the location you specify and the files will be unmarked.

Using this method can save you time because you never have to hit ALT-M and you do not have to select files. Another advantage is that you can see the conference and file directory the files are designated to be moved to.

Just as there are two ways to move a file, there are two ways to move a file to the off-line file directory. When you press ALT-M you will notice there is a prompt asking you if you want to move the file off-line. If you answer Y, the file will be moved to the off-line file directory and a zero-byte file will be left behind to prevent the filename from being uploaded again.

In expert mode, you can simply put an X in the conference column. You
will immediately notice the file is marked for moving. The file will be moved to the directory that you specified as the off-line directory and the date in the description will be changed to say OFF-LINE.

You may either delete a file or remove a file from a file directory.
The following describes the difference between deleting and removing a file:

Both the file description and the file will be marked for deletion. This is the method that you will want to use if you want to totally purge a file from the system.

Only the physical file is deleted leaving the file description behind. To help differentiate a normal file from a file which has been removed, the date in the file description will be changed to DELETED. In addition, a zero-byte file is left behind on disk to prevent a file with the same name from being uploaded again.

Changing a filename, date or description is extremely easy. All you have to do is move your highlighting bar to one of the fields mentioned previously and simply type in the new filename, date or description.
When you exit the Directory Editor, your changes will be made to both the file description and the physical file on disk.

Obviously it would be quite difficult to describe a file with only 45 characters. PCBoard and PCBFiler allow you to enter up to 65 lines for your file descriptions. To add a description line to an existing file description you insert a new line using ALT-I. Insert a secondary description line and start typing. If you need another line, simply press ALT-I again to insert another secondary description line.

Make sure whenever you are entering a description and it is not the first line that it has a | character before the place where your description begins. Otherwise, your description line will be treated as a text line instead of a description line.

Once you have made all of the changes you want to make in the directory editor, you need to actually carry out those changes. To do this, press E to exit the Directory Editor and save your changes.

At this point you will be asked some questions regarding processing.

PCBFiler allows you to control if the physical files will be processed in addition to the file descriptions. In most situations, you will want to move the physical files with their descriptions. The following are the valid responses to this question.

After all of the changes have been made as specified in the directory editor, you can have PCBFiler check all of the directories that were processed to see if there are any duplicates in any one file directory.
The following are the valid responses for this field:

This question will only appear if you set the default of this field to A. This option allows you to choose if you wish to set the file date in the description to the current date when moving or copying files. The following are valid responses.

Once you have answered all of the questions, PCBFiler will begin processing each of the file directories that are involved. A single line will be displayed showing what is currently being processed. For example, you may see the following:

Backing up: H:\UTIL\FDIR2
Changed   : HISTRY14.ZIP file date
Moved File: HISTRY14.ZIP to Area 9, DIR 8
Sorting   : H:\DOOR\UPLOAD by Date (Ascending)

From the first line you can see that PCBFiler backed up the directory file in case you wish to undo the changes. Next, the file date on HISTRY14.ZIP was changed to reflect the new date that was entered in the editor. Finally, the file was moved to conference 9, file directory 8 and the destination file directory was sorted using the method specified in DIR.LST.

As your system becomes larger there is a better chance you will start to see sharing violations. These are notifications that the current action could not be processed yet, because someone is accessing the file that is needed for processing. These errors are common in a multinode environment and are normal.

Whenever PCBFiler runs into a sharing violation, it will wait 10 seconds and try to access the file again. The best way to avoid or minimize the number of sharing violations you get while processing files is to do your directory maintenance in off-peak hours when fewer people are online.

PCBoard stores the file directories in ASCII format. In other words, you can look at your file directories with a text editor and see exactly what they look like. Because the file directories are stored in ASCII format, the text must be placed in certain positions and follow certain rules in order to be considered valid.

If you do not manually edit your file directory listings, you most likely will not need to pay attention to this section. Those that manually edit their file directories will find this section full of useful information.

Any line that is not part of a file description is considered a text line. Obviously, there is no format required for a text line. Simply enter up to 78 characters per line and it will be displayed as entered. You can use text lines at the top of your file directory as a header which will describe the contents of a file directory. There is no real limit to what you can do with text lines.
Remember that even text lines get sorted if you have chosen to sort the file directory.

.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
         Directory 1 - PCBoard Bulletin Board Software
------------------------------------------------------------------------

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PCBoard software is only available from inside the Support           |
| Conference.  However, the files below can be downloaded by any       |
| caller to this system - including the complete PCBoard documentation |
| file.  It is provided for your use in the event you are considering  |
| the purchase of PCBoard software.  You can order PCBoard software    |
| while online with us by completing Script Questionnaire #2.          |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

PCB145AM.ZIP   168046  12-28-90  PCBoard v 14.5 ASCII Manual
PCBORDER.ZIP     2662  12-10-92  PCBoard v 14.x Ordering Information
PCBCOMP.ZIP      2839  04-01-92  PCBoard v 14.5a Comparison Guide
                                 Use this to compare other BBS packages
                                 with PCBoard.

In the previous screen capture the text lines are the dashed lines explaining the directory, and the box.

An included file is a line which begins with a % followed by a valid filename. The file specified will be viewed at the point it is stored in the directory file. The include file feature is very handy to use especially if you have a disclaimer that you put in each file directory. That way, you may only have to enter something like %C:\PCB\GEN\DISCLAIM on a blank line instead of all of the text.
When you make a change to the DISCLAIM file the changes are automatically spread through all directories which display the file.

This is the line that contains the filename, date, size, and first line of the description. The following specifications must be met for this line to be considered as a valid primary description line.

The file name is valid and contains no spaces within it.

The file size is flush right in column #21. No commas please.

The file date begins in column #24 and uses dashes to separate the date (e.g., 03-19-94). All values less than 10 include leading zeroes as in “01” instead of “ 1”.

The file description begins in column 34 and must not extended beyond 78.

The following shows some sample primary description lines:

PCB145AM.ZIP   168046  12-28-90  PCBoard v 14.5 ASCII Manual
PCBORDER.ZIP     2662  12-10-92  PCBoard v 14.x Ordering Information
PCBLINFO.ZIP     7205  01-18-89  PCBoard/LANtastic Thoughts/Ideas
PCBFILES.ZIP   259861  02-23-93* Complete List of All Files on Salt Air

As you can see, these listings all adhere to the proper format. If you do not adhere to the format as outlined previously, the entire line will be considered a text line and will be treated as such.

Secondary lines allow you to improve the description of a file by providing a much longer description. Rules for valid secondary lines are as follows:

• Must follow a valid primary or secondary file listing.
• Must begin with a space in the first column.
• Must include a vertical bar (a | character) somewhere on the line (the default is in column 32 at the end of the date field).

PCBoard will, when displaying the file to the caller, remove the vertical bar so as not to clutter up the display.

PCBoard performs automatic colorization of the DIR files as they are being displayed by recognizing text lines, filenames, sizes, dates, descriptions, and secondary lines according to the previous rules and according to the color scheme defined in PCBFiler's Choose DIR Colors menu option..

Any additional colorations desired (via @-codes) are permissable as long as they are placed in non-column-sensitive areas such as text or secondary lines. You will not be able to place color codes anywhere to the left of the description field on a primary description line.